Sixel: Drive means everyone can join AFL-CIO

By L.M. Sixel |
March 21, 2012
| Updated: March 21, 2012 9:32pm

Most of us think of labor unions as organizations people join at work. The AFL-CIO is trying to change that.

The giant labor federation is opening its doors to everyone, including those who are between jobs or don't have unions at work. It set up an affiliate union - Working America - to focus on many of the same hot button issues that unions do, including health care access, retirement security and unemployment insurance benefits.

Much like members of AARP, the National Rifle Association and many other large organizations, the AFL-CIO's more than 3 million members have access to a wide range of consumer discounts on such items as hotel rooms, car rentals and auto insurance. And like those other interest groups, the AFL-CIO can galvanize its newest members almost instantly.

For the past few years the AFL-CIO has been using door-to-door canvassers to sign up members. But that's expensive and the labor federation, which has more than 12 million members - including its new Working America members - is asking labor councils around the nation to sign up friends and family of existing union members as well as people who belong to like-minded community groups.

While they won't have collective bargaining rights or the protections of the National Labor Relations Board, members will have many of the same union benefits for $5 a year, said Shaw, who conducted the first training session in December and will have several more in April.

Seeking members

And he's betting that over time it will increase membership in unions, which stood at just 5.2 percent of Texas wage and salary workers last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"Employers need to pay attention to this sort of thing if they want to maintain a union-free workforce," said A. Kevin Troutman, an employment lawyer at Fisher & Phillips who represents management clients.

He said the AFL-CIO project is a way to build loyalty, engender an atmosphere of "us versus them" and identify people already receptive to union messages, said Troutman. That could give a union a head start later on if it launched an organizing campaigning.

Shaw said he's already collecting data about where the new members work and worship.

"When you start signing people up, you are talking about organizing at the neighborhood level," he said.

Increasing clout

Working America is a good idea for increasing the political clout of organized labor, said law professor Julius Getman, who specializes in labor relations at the University of Texas in Austin. But he stressed that it's not a substitute for traditional union organizing or collective bargaining at the workplace.

Labor unions should be expanding their efforts around collective bargaining, he said, pointing to the efforts of unions that represent hotel and other service workers for the inroads they're making.

Several such unions have changed their organizing methods by focusing on membership sign-ups that don't require elections and by launching comprehensive efforts to pressure companies to remain neutral during organizing campaigns.

"It's slow but it works," said Getman, whose latest book is "Restoring the Power of Unions: It Takes a Movement."